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Monday, August 09, 2004

Generosity Impersonified

Another red light. I guess I must have been in a good mood, coz, I reached into my pocket, took out a coin and dropped it into the cupped palm of the beggar woman.

The baby on her hip was playing with a deflated balloon---pulling it and releasing it to whip in the air, or now, on my car. He had a toothless grin. Quite cute actually.

I guess my unbound generosity made him happy. With a chuckle, he released the stretched balloon. It struck me right on the nose! Ouch! Boy, did that hurt?! I laughed off my anger, even though my eyes welled up a bit. I was supposed to be all kind and nice and goody, remember? "Nice baby cute baby".

I took the opportunity to press the cheek of the baby with all the feelings of a Mahatma. The light turned green. I guess vengeance got better of me and the press turned into a pinch. The baby's face transformed from a grin to stark astonishment.

Before the baby could start bawling I vroomed off leaving the angry mama hurling abuses at me. He! He! He!

Monday, August 02, 2004

Eyes and Feet

He was looking at her feet.
    She was looking at his eyes.
She tried to hide her feet.
    He looked at her eyes looking at him.
She quickly looked away.
    He quickly looked away.
Both of them looked as if 
    neither had seen anything.

And all the while he was there, she didn't know what to do with her feet.
She was squirming as if the bed was extremely uncomfortable --
    trying to shift her feet as many times as possible so as not to let his gaze rest upon them.
He knew what she was doing and felt bad about making her feel like that.
But he couldn't resist those lotus feet --
    as if they were the most beautiful things that he has seen in a long long time.
It took him a lot of effort to tear his eyes from them --
    it felt like a huge sacrifice.
But that made her feel better.
He moved away for a while.
But once in a while he stole a few glances of her feet.
Coz it were her feet that revealed to him the real she --
    the girl he knew, the one she's inside, the woman he loved once -- and not her face or body or voice.
Those divine feet were not only a part of her being,
    but also a part of his story.